Troubles

James Gordon Farrell

ISBN 10: 0006540465 / ISBN 13: 9780006540465

Published by Flamingo, 1984

About this Item

Leichte Kratzer / Abnutzungen / Druckstellen; Leichte Verschmutzung / Farbtonveränderung. 1919: After surviving the Great War, Major Brendan Archer makes his way to Ireland, hoping to discover whether he is indeed betrothed to Angela Spencer, whose Anglo-Irish family owns the once-aptly-named Majestic Hotel in Kilnalough. But his fiancée is strangely altered and her family's fortunes have suffered a spectacular decline. The hotel's hundreds of rooms are disintegrating on a grand scale; its few remaining guests thrive on rumors and games of whist; herds of cats have taken over the Imperial Bar and the upper stories; bamboo shoots threaten the foundations; and piglets frolic in the squash court. Meanwhile, the Major is captivated by the beautiful and bitter Sarah Devlin. As housekeeping disasters force him from room to room, outside the order of the British Empire also totters: there is unrest in the East, and in Ireland itself the mounting violence of "the troubles." Troubles is a hilarious and heartbreaking work by a modern master of the historical novel.

Seller Inventory # 3e501331-6f52-4f04-ab6a-aaa85e73e044

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Troubles
• Publisher: Flamingo
• Publication Date: 1984
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0006540465
• ISBN 13: 9780006540465
• Binding: Softcover
• Condition: Fine

About this title

Synopsis

J.G. Farrell was born in England and moved to Ireland around the age of twelve. Often mistaken for an Irish-born writer, this is mainly because ‘Troubles’, the first book of his ‘Empire Trilogy’ (also including ‘The Siege of Krishnapur’ and ‘The Singapore Grip’) takes a comical yet political and personal look at the realities of the Irish fight for independence against the might of the British Empire. A listener follows Brendan Archer, a Major in the British Army, to County Wicklow in Ireland, where he is supposed to meet the woman he thinks that he will marry. When his plans do not turn out quite as he imagined, he decides to stay on at 'The Majestic' - a crumbling coastal hotel - which holds a strange charm and many, often amusing, eccentric inhabitants. Made into a film for television in 1988, ‘Troubles’ is an involving and interesting listen, both touching and enthralling.

About the Author

J.G. Farrell (1935-79) is an English-born novelist of Irish descent. Troubles won the Lost Man Booker Prize in 2010, while another of his novels, The Siege of Krishnapur, won the 1973 Booker Prize.